Inti to launch beepers, cellular phones next year
Inti to launch beepers, cellular phones next year
JAKARTA (JP): State telecommunications equipment maker PT Inti
plans to launch mini-beepers and cellular handsets for the
Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) early next year.
Company director Jopie Manduapessy said in Bandung, West Java,
on Saturday that the beepers and the cellular handsets would be
officially launched by President Soeharto.
"The products will be launched during the inauguration of
telecommunications year, which is 1997," he said.
The beepers will be smaller than those currently found in the
domestic market, he said. "The price will also be more
reasonable," the Antara new agency quoted Jopie as saying.
The dimensions of the PHS terminal are 115mm in height, 43mm
in width and 25mm in length. It weighs 120 grams, including the
battery. One of the lightest cellular handsets in the world, the
Ericsson GH 388 is 130mm tall, 49mm wide, 23mm in length and 170
grams in weight.
Inti has set up PT Indoprima Mikroselindo, a joint venture
with a number of partners including state-owned PT Indosat and PT
Yamabri Komunikasindo, a company controlled by the Foundation of
Military Headquarters to operate the PHS next year.
In addition to the planned PHS, there are currently some
500,000 cellular telephone users in Indonesia, using three
different systems -- the Nordic Mobile Telephone, the Advanced
Mobile Phone Service and the Global System for Mobile
communications (GSM).
Inti also intends to cooperate with Philips of the Netherlands
to develop GSM handsets in Indonesia.
Company president Arsyad Ismael said that the company's
revenues reached Rp 399 billion (US$169 million) for the January
to November period, around 33 percent above the original target.
"By the end of this year, we expect to gain Rp 428 billion in
total revenues."
Inti currently makes switching centrals, pay phones,
telephones and card phones.
The company will compete with PT Metro Media Raya in the
beeper manufacturing business. Metro Media Raya -- an affiliated
company of PT Motorollain Corp., which operates Starko radio
paging -- started its operation last week.
The lucrative telecommunications industry in Indonesia is
expected to grow significantly in the next few years. However, no
company has yet to begin manufacturing cellular handset
terminals.
A number of CT2 (the second generation of the cordless
telephone system) handsets have been assembled in Batam, southern
Sumatra. Goldtron of Singapore also plans to set up a cordless
telephone assembling facility in the country. (icn)